Over at Digital Home Thoughts there is an impressively in-depth review of different photo-book printing services. In this day of digital printing, it’s pretty easy to have your own book made, but it’s not that cheap and it does require a fair bit of work. Additionally, it’s difficult to differentiate between different printers as most seem to offer just about the same services. This article runs through 12 different options in an attempt to clear up any possible confusion.

This review was a huge undertaking, which in part justifies its 15 page length…

In order to compare photo book printing services, someone would have to contact a broad cross-section of service providers in the USA and Canada (let’s say a dozen in total), arrange for a free sample to be provided (because buying a 60-page photo book twelve times over would be $800+), build the same book with all of them (or as close as possible), factor in the book-building software component, then compare the eventual results of the physical books. Who’d be crazy enough to take on such a huge task? That would be me.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll want to spend the day reading it though, so you can hop right the conclusion if you’d like.

The author’s inspiration makes complete sense–after a disappointing result from Picaboo he wanted to test out the competition and see what was out there. The book received from Picaboo looks pretty bad compared to the others and the article reveals serious discrepancies in features and quality. Give the costs of these books and the time required to make them, it’s clear that choosing the right one can greatly affect your final result.

So who makes the best photo-books? According to Digital Home Thoughts it’s Photobook Canada or MyPublisher. If you have concerns about price or your book is under 50 pages you might want to go with something like AdoramaPix. Stop by the article for a full breakd0wn.